Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Love Unwritten by Lauren Asher

1 review

witcheep's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Lauren Asher has become one of my favorite authors to read as soon as possible, and this book just solidifies that resolve. Love unwritten tells the tale of two people who have been through some serious trauma both in their childhood and recent relationships. They are afraid to give second chances to feeling big feelings with anyone, but slowly finding connection with each other and their families, they relearn to be open to caring about others and letting them care for you as well. Asher writes this process in such a real and emotional way that you can't help but get sucked into the lives of these characters.

The MMC Rafael is a millionaire grumpy single dad who is afraid to let anyone close anymore. He has been hurt too many times in the past by those he considered dear to him. Now he struggles to have a realtionship even with his son, and keeps everyone else at arm's distance to hide his struggles. Letting new people is even harder because of all the stacked up trust issues he has gained through is trauma.

  Loneliness might be temporary, but heartbreak?
     That emotional damage can last a lifetime.
– Rafael

Ellie is the nanny to Rafael's child Nico. She is a hopeful romantic and a songwriter, but is afraid to go after her dreams in the music business, because she has past trauma of doing just that and getting exploited and disregarded. That trauma hinders her love life as well, because her trust is waning.

 "We can want a lot of things, but it doesn't mean anything if we don't put in the effort to make any of it happen."
– Ellie

The romance between Rafael and Ellie is a delicious slow burn. Both of them struggle with admitting to even themselves how smitten they are with each other. They take steps forward, but also backtrack and make mistakes; e. q. they struggle with trust issues, mental health struggles, and the power imbalance in their work situation mixing with the relationship/situationship they begin to give in to.

"Things were never going to work out. You didn't value me or my time enough, while I valued your family way too much. It would only get worse with time, so you firing me just sped up the process."
– Ellie to Rafael

The key is that they are willing to work on their own issues as wel as, eventually, they are open with communicating their feelings and needs with each other. That lets them find out how right they could be for each other.
 
"The one does exist, but not in the way you thought I meant, like some soulmate or something cosmic. To me, the one is someone willing to do everything in their power to be the person you deserve, not because they are fated to love you but because they choose to."
– Ellie to Rafael

This constant working on themselves and helping each other with that process made me feel, at times and in the best way possible, like I was reading a sneaky self-help book that lets you see a process of therapeutic healing of someone you care about. Seeing how determined both Ellie and Rafael are to work through their past traumas affecting their current behavior and to become better versions of themsleves makes me feel very hopeful. The book is full of insightful quotes you could frame to get motivation to work on yourself as well, and I love how they are so ingrained in the character's personalities that it comes across truly compassionate.
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